According to the petitioner, K Lakshminarayanan, a Congress MLA,?the Centre issued a notification on July 4, nominating BJP Puducherry unit chief V Saminathan, its treasurer KG Shankar and educationist S Selva Ganapathy as MLAs without consulting chief minister V Narayanasamy. Refusing to stay the Madras high court order, which upheld the nomination of three BJP members as legislators to the Puducherry Assembly by Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi, the Supreme Court on Thursday said the MLAs should be allowed to attend the house. A bench of justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan also issued notice to the Centre, Lt Governor of Puducherry and the three MLAs on a Congress MLA’s petition questioning the HC order and the membership. “We expect the legislative assembly to allow the three MLAs to function,” the bench said after their lawyer, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, accused the Speaker of not letting his clients enter the assembly. “They are not being allowed to go in. Marshals stop them at the gate itself despite the HC order upholding their nomination,” Rohatgi contended. Attorney general KK Venugopal, appearing for Centre, echoed a similar view. “This is farce of democracy,” the AG said while accepting the court notice. According to the petitioner, K Lakshminarayanan, a Congress MLA,?the Centre issued a notification on July 4, nominating BJP Puducherry unit chief V Saminathan, its treasurer KG Shankar and educationist S Selva Ganapathy as MLAs without consulting chief minister V Narayanasamy. On March 22, 2018, the Madras high court upheld the nomination of the three members and ruled that an administrator of a Union territory has powers to act, irrespective of the advice of the council of ministers. The judgement came on cross-petitions filed by Lakshminarayanan and the three BJP?MLAs. While the Congress lawmaker challenged the nomination, the nominated members moved HC assailing the assembly Speaker’s November 12, 2017 order cancelling their nominations, declaring them invalid. The three were stopped from attending the first session of the assembly, which began in March, after the HC order.